Pushing for more accountability from the school board, the group issued a statement Friday urging officials to spare classrooms from cuts, hire auditors, appoint community members to review the budget, and release information about hires and contracts. Read the full statement below, in English and Spanish:

Mediaka Ntungu, a junior at Hillhouse High School, never thought he’d get the chance to meet New Haven’s mayor. Then, on Thursday, Toni Harp personally congratulated him on a stellar performance in his upper-level computer science and chemistry classes.

Hartford — Wilbur Cross High School student Hazel Mencos came to the state Capitol Tuesday and exercised a right that many American citizens never use: She testified in a public hearing in favor of a bill, answered questions from a lawmaker, and had her view entered into the public records.

A new push for accountability in the Board of Education’s multi-million-dollar contracting process led members to table multiple items at a committee meeting, including funding for a new program for foster youth run by former Alder Sergio Rodriguez.

“Boola! Boola!” dozens of students in Yale T-shirts shouted as the bulldog mascot danced around them in Fair Haven School’s auditorium Friday morning.

The students don’t attend Yale — at least not yet.

They are students of the K-8 school. And they were engaged in an annual ritual aimed at gearing them to recite college fight songs as college students one day. Only they weren’t Yale students. Close to 850 students and hundreds of parents packed Fair Haven School’s auditorium on Friday for the 9th Annual Snowball. The Snowball is a yearly event where students perform dances and recite the fight songs of ten different Connecticut colleges, including Gateway, University of New Haven, Quinnipiac, and of course, Yale. The purpose of the Snowball, according to Sharon Arnold, is to get kids excited about colleges and encourage physical activity. Students danced choreographed dances in front of a screen that played images of each school, as well as statistics about the schools, including admissions rates and size of the student body. At times the students were joined by mascots and cheerleaders.